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Saturday, April 5, 2014

that time I baked a breakfast

Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a baker. In fact, I had never in my life baked a single muffin or loaf of bread... until today. Don't ask me why, but when I woke up this morning, I felt like baking. So I pulled out my never-been-used muffin pan and starting baking up some muffins for breakfast. With my boys' help, of course ;) Nothing goes into the oven in this household without a little toddler knowing about it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup applesauce (all natural & unsweetened)

1/2 cup greek yogurt (I think they probably meant plain, but I just used what I had on hand which was Stonyfield Organic superfruit. I'm pretty sure any flavor would work)

Mix dry ingredients well and then add the applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups, filling to about full. (note: the original recipe said to fill them 2/3 full... but I had leftover batter and my muffins ended up pretty flat. I recommend just filling them up all the way if you can)

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

The boys were extraordinary little bakers. They were happy to help me stir, and they probably would've dumped all the ingredients into the bowl for me if I didn't feel like measuring. They both insisted on waited patiently for the muffins to be finished (with their oven mitts on, even though they know I would never let them touch the oven). They didn't step foot out of the kitchen until the muffins were all stacked on a plate and ready to eat.

These muffins were a HIT in our house. If you're craving something slightly sweet and feeling like falling off the clean eating bandwagon, these just might do the trick. They may not have been the prettiest muffins in the world (hey, it was my first try!) but Elliot and Emmett each ate two, and I lost count of how many Aaron munched on throughout the day. I liked them, too! Next time I think I will try making them with strawberries instead. Strawberries are my boys' favorite fruit so I'm pretty sure their minds would be blown by some delicious strawberry muffins.

What are your thoughts on brown sugar?
It seems that the clean-eating world can't agree on whether or not they consider it clean. To be honest, it doesn't really matter to me... if the rest of a recipe is clean, I won't feel guilty about adding in a little sugar. I'd love to know what YOU think, though!

4 comments:

I've recently gotten into baking muffins too in an effort to have healthy yummy breakfasts... my little guy loves them :) I love that I can stuff them full of healthy like like oats and berries and flax seed etc. I use brown sugar, but I just bought some coconut sugar to try next time (supposed to be better for you, less processed).

This looks so good. I love my muffins and bake them all the time so I will have to try this. You should try out the scrambled egg muffins and pancake muffins too! We're not on the "clean eating" band wagon exactly (we do still eat processed foods at times and I almost never can afford organic but I do love Farmer's Markets) but I do love making healthy meals for myself and my boys. Snacks in our house involve crackers, string cheese, fruit, applesauce pouches (I got the reusable ones), and yogurt. I almost never buy junk food except the occasional popcorn and pop (factory work sucks).

Brown sugar is just sugar (usually refined) and molasses. Its probablybc of the refined sugar causing the debate. If you can find raw sugar brown sugar or make your own, great. If not, its one not completely clean ingredients amongst 5+ completely clean things. What is that in the grand scheme if things.

Thanks for sharing! I made these last night and they're really good! They will definitely be a regular in my house. I do wish they were just a touch sweeter... I did have to use frozen blueberries though and I think they are bland in comparison to fresh (the store was out when I went) and I think I won't use plain greek yogurt next time. Regardless they are so good and really filling.